Question, with a bit of explanation up-front: When I was a star-party regular (and plan to be again one day), pleasing the general public wasn't the main point behind the club holding them. The club was a magnet for like-minded people, not really a public relations device. Most of us went to look through our own telescopes, maybe take some pictures, BS with fellow clubbers and see what the other atm's had been up to. If it was convenient for a stranger to take a look, and they were polite about asking, they got their look. If "star party" now means "educational outreach for the general public", is the type of participant I outlined above not welcome anymore? Or are there two distinct types of star-party now? Can I go to a star party without asking strangers "What do you know about astronomy? Would you like to know more?" ;) I suppose public outreach goes along with A.L. affiliation. --- Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
Some general public members at star parties complained that all the scope owners choose one or two targets of opporunity. All the scopes are looking at the same thing.
At a SLAS meeting earlier this year, an AstroLeague education handout was circulated that contained a brief blurb on common objects - galaxies, pn's, globs, oc's, dkn's, etc. Bill Kennedy suggested that somekind of sign in front of each scope would allow the general public to browse between various object types.
It also makes it easy between scope owners to quickly survey what each scope is pointing at, so we are not duplicating each other.
Any who, that is the general idea. Just a suggestion, not a prescription.
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